“With the ever wonderful moog opus 3, and the insanely addictive tone matrix from andre michelle… it’s freely usable so long as you have the most recent flash update, it reminds me of early software drum machines like hammerhead… it seems he is creating a whole reason-ish music creation world online all run with flash, it’s quite heavy on the CPU but very interesting x lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix the moog is still missing it’s string sound, but one of it’s faults allows me to just have the filter with no sound underneath which you hear at the beginning… i love this synth x” – longcat

Thanks for Robbie Knight for this video. Isn’t time shifting on a rainy (in NYC at least) Friday nice?

Here’s two videos that both help you make music with hardware. One is based on 1970’s tech and the other is pure 2009. What’s more lust worthy? A green lit Minimoog Voyager or an iPhone with polyphonic velocity sensitive keys controlling Ableton and more?

“The MF-101 Low Pass Filter’s ENV OUT Control Voltage makes a number of amazing Rhythmic Modulation techniques possible. This video shows some of these applications in a Dance Music setting. This technique is not limited to Dance Music. The applications are as endless as your imagination.” – MoogMusicInc

“MSA Remote is a remote control application for iPhone & iPod Touch that sends OSC messages over the wifi network. This allows you to control any OSC supporting applications such as Max/MSP/Jitter, PureData, Reaktor, VDMX, vvvv, Resolume, Quartz Composer etc. In this video, OSCulator is routing the OSC (& TUIO) messages coming from MSA Remote to midi and forwarding to Ableton Live and VDMX simultaneously. Nothing is done in post, the same signal is controlling both audio and video. At the beginning of the video you can see the polyphonic velocity sensitive keys in action (yes, the harder you hit the keys, the louder the sound – works equally well when the iphone is laid on a table), and later on the faders, triggers and multitouch tuio-pad. Should be in the app store soon: www.memo.tv/msaremote_for_iphone” – Memo Akten

I like you so you can have both set ups but for fun answer me this: Which set up would you rather have?

The next two days in New York be sunny and warm. My wife’s been pointing out all the holes in my favorite T-shirts. Therefore this post is for her and her wallet. Most of these prints are available on American Apparel shirts which means they fit well and are nice and soft. The classic and now fully hipsterized green Moog T? Could I be in full “Hawtin, bald, those black geek eyeglasses” Ableton T mode? Do I want to date myself with the Fairlight T? I love AD and Ohm Force but no one other than readers of this blog would have a clue what the prints mean (which is ok by me!).

A Moog museum. A program to bring electronic instruments into schools. Ton of archives, schematics written by Bob on display for the public. These are a few of the things the Moog Foundation is working on and they need your help. This is not a “mini” project! The Moog brand is a true American success story and it’s story deserves great respect and preservation.

“Good evening ladies and gentleman my name is Eric from the Rhythmicons demonstrain’ some Moog products.” Specifically Eric uses the FreqBox as a second Oscillator for a old Micromoog. Things get fun at about 3:33 in. The USA flag surely fits in this Arkansas Moog kitchen!

Here’s how Eric did it:
MicroMoog Kbd out to Cp251 Attenuator
Attenuator out to Freqbox Frequency input
Freq Out to Audio Input of Freqbox.
Audio output to MicroMoog Audio Input.

Um… ok. I don’t really have anything to add to this. Well I can add that I’ve been watching Milo this week while my mother is on vacation in Florida and he’s living up to his song. Every night at around 3:00AM deer show up in our backyard so Milo decides to go freakin nuts barking. He also decided to roll in squirrel droppings for some reason. It was a new experience taking a shower with a dog cover in feces. I used an entire bottle of baby shampoo.

“Üter the amazing wiener dog loves to lick peanut butter off of a minimoog. If you like the sound of the Minimoog’s third oscillator, you should try it with peanut butter smeared on the knob.” – parrygripp.com

Today a good friend of mine asked me if it was ok if we just traded mix CD’s this year for Christmas. I guess hard times are here so this years official Wire to the Ear Christmas gift guide is strictly limited to great but budget priced stocking stuffers.

I like the wood case this guy built for his Minimax ASB. Although he does a convincing job of making you believe the old and new synths sound the same I’d still need to hear the uncompressed ala YouTube sound to make a judgment. Nothing beats the real thing right? In the end it’s the song that matters, the notes you play and the story you tell. Still this is a fun comparison!

“This is a direct comparison between my Minimoog (1976) and a Creamware Minimax ASB, trying to use the same settings on both instruments and playing them together or one at a time.” – zioguido

A review of the Minimax ASB in Sound on Sound magazine: click here
Visit the Moog website: click here

Here’s a pretty new plug-in for the new Universal Audio UAD-2! It seems to have all the right stuff too: self-oscillation, drive control, stereo tonal shifting, good modulation options and yay a wet/dry knob. No need for me to blab too much about what it can do because there is a great video overview here:

If UA were able to conceive a Moog product, what would it be? The answer is revealed in the soon-to-be-released Moog Multimode Filter, which delivers the first truly analog-sounding VCF (Voltage Controlled Filter) digital emulation made for mixing, performing, creating, or destroying. How can we claim this? The devil is in the details …Created in conjunction with the foremost pioneers in synthesis, the Moog Multimode Filter is a virtual tabletop filter set that combines the best of Bob Moog’s classic designs with select features from his final Voyager instrument. It is an amalgam of the best new and classic Moog designs, with a few innovations thrown in! – www.uaudio.com

If you want to stay native I like the Fabfilter Volcano 2 and Timeless combo.

Comicon was last week so I got inspired to make some strips for Wire to the Ear. I hope you find them somewhat entertaining. Feel free to share and repost them. I used the excellent Comic Life Magiq from Plasq. You can download the high resolution PDF of all four strips by: clicking here